Run The Jewels Puts Northside Festival To Bed

Northside Festival’s Run the Jewels showcase got off to a less than stellar start. Frankly, 50 Kent is a bummer. The sound was abrasive at times, not to mention that loitering around a vacant parking lot doesn’t lend itself to outdoor, summertime blissfulness. The vendor options were hugely disappointing (think Bud Light Lemon-Ade-Rita and a bowl of shawarma for dinner) but to give credit where credit is due, everyone working the event was friendly, excited about the music and had extremely sympathetic eyes.

At around 7:30, the crowd began to get a little denser, however before Vince Staples took the stage, there was an incessant technical dilemma that raged on for about 15 minutes. Occasionally, it would desist and you could hear and feel a sigh of relief amongst the crowd and then the audible torture would start back up again. In retrospect, it was an unintentionally genius way to warm up the crowd because when Vince Staples appeared we were all pretty ecstatic. His highly anticipated debut album, Summertime ‘06 was the focal point of his performance and he clearly had the full love and support of all in attendance.

Vince Staples

Vince Staples fans

Though the evening’s headliner was Run the Jewels, judging by the crowd alone, this was a Sleigh Bells show. For as far as the eye could see, I was surrounded by dancing replicas of Alexis Krauss, the lead vocalist of Sleigh Bells who truly sang the hell out of her set. The front-woman has an incredible range, one that can seamlessly take melodic leaps from genre to genre, which is the driving force behind their identity and uniqueness as a band. With that said, their set was also heavy on backing tracks, which is useful so long as its implemented judiciously. In this particular case, it cheapened their performance.

Sleigh Bells

Sleigh Bells fans

Sleigh Bells

For anyone who is not familiar with or partial to hip-hop, I recommend you get yourself to a Run the Jewels Show. Not only are they engaging and lively, but their production is earth shattering in every way, especially on tracks like “Close Your Eyes” and “Banana Clipper.” Throughout the show, EI-P was extremely vocal about his stance on politics and his gratitude for the warm welcome he was receiving in his hometown of Brooklyn. Despite having his arm in a sling, Killer Mike was an equally as ambitious performer as his Run the Jewels counterpart. For everyone involved, there was an obvious sense of nostalgia and heart to be had in their performance, both individually and as a unit. Before performing “36” Chain,” EI-P really moved the crowd with a simple but sincerely heartfelt allegory, “you have the same gigantic golden invisible 36 inch chain that we do, and we wear that shit so we can identify each other.” The rain began early in their set, but it hardly seemed to affect anyone on or off stage. When EI-P teased, “We’ve got a surprise for you later” it didn’t occur to anyone that Nas would join the duo to perform “Made You Look,” but he did and yes, it was as good as you might assume. A few other notable guests like Gangsta Boo and Despot also made appearances for what turned out to be a rare kind of hip-hop shows that few will be able to compare to.